Community R-6 girls offense stalls in 45-35 loss to Marion County

Not many games are won in the 30s.

Community R-6 vs Marion County Photo Gallery

Community R-6 girls basketball head coach Bob Curtis said as much on Tuesday night after the Lady Trojans failed to clear the 30s for the second straight game in a 45-35 loss to Marion County at home. Prior to three quick 3-pointers in the final two minutes of the game, the Lady Trojans had only three field goals following the first quarter.

Marion County (2-1) finished with nine steals but tallied most of them in the first half as Community turned the ball over trying to pass to the high post. Curtis said running the offense seems to be challenging for the Lady Trojans (1-2) early this season.

"We really haven't run good offense — not getting the ball side-to-side so we can break a defense down and get a good shot instead of taking a shot on the first side against a zone," Curtis said. "We're a better shooting team than we've shown the last two nights. It's kind of in our heads a little bit."

Community allowed its previous game at Wellsville-Middletown to slip away 41-34 and that started with the offense not doing enough that night, Curtis said. The quality of the opponent doesn’t matter when the shots don’t go down, as has been the case for the Lady Trojans the past two games.

Curtis said Community brings senior leadership and experience back this season as seniors Alyssa Beamer and Kylie Brooks each finished with seven points and Beamer added two 3-pointers. The Lady Trojans also have several new faces in the starting lineup after graduating three starters after last season. Two of those new faces were among the scoring leaders on Tuesday as Peyton Beamer finished with nine points, six rebounds and three 3-pointers and Aaliyah Welch had seven points and five rebounds.

“We’re trying to figure out who needs to play when with who,” Curtis said. “We’re just trying to figure out what our rotation is, but it’s early. We’re going to have our ups and downs. We have a few veteran kids, but we’re not what I would consider to be a veteran team.”

Community finished with eight steals and forced Marion County more turnovers in the second half after trailing 22-15 halftime. The Lady Mustangs eventually built a double-digit lead that momentarily was knocked back down to eight points early in the fourth quarter after Peyton Beamer knocked down a 3-pointer to add life into the crowd.

Marion County seemed to be more uncomfortable in the second half after the Lady Trojans moved quickly to the ball and in the face of the ball handler. 

“We got some steals that led to runouts, but we just didn’t make those runout layups either,” Curtis said. “It wasn’t for a lack of effort. At one point, it was 17, and we cut it to 10. The game’s really easy when you make shots.”

Aylah Pollard answered not long after Beamer’s 3-pointer with a 3-point play in transition as part of her game-high 15 points off the bench. Kennedy Hathaway followed with 14 points, including two 3-pointers.

“She was a mismatch,” Curtis said. “If we put too small of a post on her, they’d deliver it and she’d score over the top. She’s a lefty so that’s a little confusing at times because she actually scores over the right shoulder.”

Trojans score season low in 62-24 loss to Marion County

Joey Lagemann was just too much early in the game for the Community R-6 boys on Tuesday.

Lagemann scored 16 of his game-high 25 points in the first quarter and helped Marion County take a 13-0 lead in the Trojans’ 62-24 loss at home. The 24 points is a new season low for Community as it only managed to make two field goals in the second half, which were both put in by Mason Carroll.

After his young team’s first victory of the season, head coach Kody Asquith said the Trojans (1-2) couldn’t match the quality of play displayed by Marion County, who seems to have a little bit of everything in its 3-0 start.

"They were lights out tonight," Asquith said. "That's a good club as they move the ball well, they play defense well and they ran the floor well. I don't feel like we played bad. We just didn't quite play to their level."

Of course, that started early in the game with Lagemann as he dropped not one, not two but three 3-pointers on Community in the first quarter that eventually led to an 18-1 lead by Marion County. The Trojans cut into the deficit to trailed 18-9 after one thanks to a couple 3-pointers by Carroll.

After that, Asquith said Community had to make adjustments right then and there if it didn’t want Lagemann hurtling too far out of control. Still, Lagemann and the Mustangs found others to spread the ball to like Porter Britt, who finished with 14 points and Mason Wood, who had eight points.

“We finally figured him out and slowed him down a little bit,” Asquith said. “We switched up who was defending him.”

Community was able to post 55 points in its victory last week against Wellsville and had several contribute to the scoring, including a couple of freshmen. Caden Thomas and Brett Beamer had 12 and 11 points, respectively, but the Trojans other than returning all-conference player and senior Carroll didn’t score much.

Lane Carter was the second-best scorer at five points after Carroll’s double-double of 16 points and 11 rebounds. Even if Tuesday’s team performance was below expectations, Asquith said Carroll had his best night in three games and will need to be a recurring presence for Community to do well this season.

“If we can get him going, the team can rally behind him,” Asquith said. “They see what he’s doing and try to get up behind him. They see he’s up so it hypes the team up too.”